The man forgotten.
Marko Pjaca was supposed to be the fiery right winger to play opposite of Ivan Perišić in a stacked Croatian offense. However, two separate knee injuries have kept Pjaca out of action – for the most part – since 2016. But at only 24 years young, the Juventus man can make a resurgence over the next six months to get his career back on track.
Pjaca officially returned to the bench for Juventus on December 7th but has not seen action on the pitch since. It will be interesting to see how Juve utilizes their Croatian as he has peaked loan interest from both Sampdoria and Verona, Football Italia has reported.
The thing is: Pjaca has the goods. Unfortunately, injuries are a part of the game and he hasn’t been able to progress in the past two years. Remember, Pjaca played a pivotal role in helping Croatia defeat Spain 2-1 at Euro 2016. If he can shake the mental ramifications of having dealt with two serious injuries, he still has plenty of time to become a Croatian star. He just needs first-team football anywhere in a European top-four league. Italy is the perfect league for him. Look at what Mario Pašalić has done at Atalanta.
We will keep a targeted eye on Pjaca this month as the winter transfer window closes in two weeks.
The question is: will Juventus use him at all this season? The reigning Italian champions host a lackluster Udinese side Wednesday, January 15th in Coppa Italia action. It would be the perfect opportunity to let Pjaca see his first action of 2020.
Hopefully Pjaca overcomes the turmoil he has encountered over the past two seasons. Imagine a fully stacked Croatian midfield consisting of Vlašić, Brekalo, and Pjaca in a few years. Oh boy.
Cagliari want him on loan.
If Pjaca gets back to being an above average potential it’s just like us finding a player at this point
It’s house money. We don’t necessarily need him but would be a good addition no doubt
Yes he has had bad injuries
But he is young and modern medicine is amazing
If he comes back. He has learned a ton about adversity
I wish the kid the best of luck
Milan full match; https://www.fullmatchesandshows.com/2020/01/15/ac-milan-vs-spal-highlights-full-match-video/
Funny how no one said he was overrated when he was healthy. I guess major injuries make you overrated.
^^^
lol at the pjaca over rated comments. guy has unbelievable quality…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAUUSu7R7vo
@Maminjo-Vrsaljko has returned to the club, but has been training in the gym. I don’t believe he has travelled with the team or even sat on the bench.
Rebic showed Milan how to play winning soccer yesterday, without Ibrahimovic. Their best showing of the year 3-0 vs SPAL.
Milan defeated SPAL In Copa yesterday and Rebic was pretty much on fire based on The highlights. Had an assist and should have had another and a goal himself. Dude looks motivated imo
https://www.rossoneriblog.com/2020/01/15/highlights-milan-3-0-spal/
Pjaca played 15 minutes in the Coppa Italia yesterday. Apparently Sarri really wanted him at Napoli before he chose to sign for Juve. I’d still like to see him go on loan rather than be an option off the bench.
Vrsaljko is already back, just on the bench.
He plays for Simeone, who is pretty stubborn and set in his ways.
I don’t care if he starts, so long as he gets some game time and is fit enough for the Euros. He’s got four months to get there.
Let us take this time to wax nostalgic:
Pjaca’s injury is still the blessing in disguise that catapulted us to Silver.
-Rebic got chance to shine vs Mexico because Pjaca went down.
-Rebic-Mandzukic-Perisic became the best pressing top 3 IN THE WORLD.
-Without Mandzukic pressing, I can see Rebic’s net worth get slightly diminished. A press is only as good as it’s weakest link, Kramaric cannot press. Petko is ok.
Pjaca was on a good trajectory. Cut short by an injury. Those are the breaks. Seems he and Vrsaljko are only modern day players who can’t comeback from knee surgery…sucks.
I will agree at his awful first touch; it was mainly to control the ball in order to dribble instead of progressing the play with a shot or a one touch pass. He had to have at least 2 touches before passing the ball. I feel like Ronaldo youtube clips are to blame. Otherwise, dude had sick touch/control. But doesn’t see plays develop so his first touch was only to control the ball like most young players.
Ah .. the away to Estonia knee crunching match .. we knew it well.
I pray Pjaca can have a stable career for the next 10 years.
Before initial injury he was coming on at Juve.
Sport science is different these days and early professional in his young 20’s can over come a great deal.
He just needs to find a spot to play to get that rhythm and joy in his legs.
Pjaca was a stud with plenty of upside.
Hopefully he’s able to recover and return to have a meaningful career as it appeared that he would have.
Juventus wouldn’t splash €20 million + at nothing. Problem is his guns are too big. Strains his poor knees.
Yeah I’m with Slavonac he has explosive speed, and never has had the chance to really progress due too injuries. Hopefully if he stays healthy he’ll have a great future.
Yeah I would definitely not say he was overrated. Maybe slightly just because we always get excited when a young player is doing well, but he was in prime position to take over the wing spot. We had been using Olic there who quite simply was not a quality winger. He was decent for us there, but was much better at playing as a second striker in my opinion. Then we starting using Brozovic there who had been an attacking mid until a couple years ago. He had good passing, but zero explosiveness.
That is what Pjaca brought back in 2016 that we desperately needed in the team. He was quick, direct, and pretty good on the ball. Juventus was grooming him to be a starter for them but then he got injured in that trash friendly in Estonia that only took place because the U21’s subbed on Ivan Fiolic in a qualifier against Estonia U21 so Estonia agreed to have the punishments ignored as long as Croatia would go and play a friendly in their country (at least I’m pretty sure that’s how the story went, correct me if I’m wrong). Ever since that injury he never got the chance to shine and was loaned to teams that had no interest in his development. He was alright at Schalke to start off, but then dropped off. I definitely don’t think he will ever be an explosive player again, but I’ve said countless times on here, he could turn out to be a serviceable player for us depending on the development of our other young wingers. Also, @Cigan, yeah he had only 1 goal in 23 caps, but how many of those times was he coming off the bench? I’d say at least 3/4 of his caps are off the bench. Especially considering 10 of them were in 2018 when he was no where near being a starter.
Pjaca had tons of explosive speed and very good dribbling…I’m shocked at all the hate.
I’ve never had a knee injury so I have no clue how much that affects a player. Pjaca has had 2 knee injuries. If he isn’t limited physically and he gets playing time, he could still be a good player for us. I guess the main question is if the injuries he’s had will hamper his best quality (explosive speed).
isnt it funny how you can tell just by reading comments who never played the game competitively?
i’m not sure what all the trashing of marko pee-ass-a is all about suddenly
I thought he had real potential
of course, I said after his knee injury he’d likely never be the same again.. I was bashed on this site as a troll… but now everyone sees I was right and came around to my side a year later…now they take it so far as to say he never had any potential
it is the kriz I have to bear
he’s still likely will never be the same again. although he’s only 24 so I could see him being a national team player again.. so I haven’t completely written him off, but building him into any sort of plans can’t be anywhere close to the baseline anymore
Pjaca was awesome.
Not sure why all the hate on him.
He was like Ante Rebić, but with much better technical ability and none of the mental instability.
The moment he blew that knee in Estonia, he lost his explosiveness and his career as a potential big time player ended.
Agree. He was hyped to death, never really did a thing; sorry for his injuries, but enough of this wishful thinking.
I never rated this kid, 20 something caps only one goal which was a 10-0 win against san marino. silly fuck running around in circles playing grab ass with kovacic and rog during training before the estonia friendly, disgrace, he got wut he deserves.
Can we stop talkin about this dude
He is so overrated
I don’t think I ever saw him do anything
His first touch is atrocious and he is no winger
Let’s move on there are others out there that can do easily replace
Sounds like he’s our next Goran vucevic for fuck sakes